Weather gadget not working- Cannot connect to service

Yes, gadgets have been end-of-lifed by Microsoft due to security issues, But that has NOTHING to do with your weather or currency gadget not updating.  Gadgets are no longer supported and new ones are not available; but they still should work if you have them.

I disagree with your statement that the gadgets should "still work if you have them".  If that is the case why is the weather gadget suddenly not updating?  Most everyone started experiencing this in the last few weeks.  And why when it is "fixed" does it again stop working?  It has to be something MS is doing.  Like has been speculated I bet it is something in a Windows Update.

I think it would be more correct to say the weather gadget will no longer work unless you do a modification.  Again and again.

I did the Config.xml fix and it worked for a week but then it stopped.  I was able to do it again and it is working again but no doubt it will stop working at some point.

The solution you propose is a bit too technical for me and I am sure others so I will just remove the weather gadget.

Yes, gadgets have been end-of-lifed by Microsoft due to security issues, But that has NOTHING to do with your weather or currency gadget not updating.  Gadgets are no longer supported and new ones are not available; but they still should work if you have them.

Here's a fix to make all gadgets working again if they can't connect.

First, create a batch file "fixgadgets.bat" containing the following two lines:

chdir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache

copy /b config.xml +,,

The copy command in the batch file simply updates the last modified time on the sidebar configuration file so that it "looks" like it's been changed. It has NOT been changed...  If you prefer you can use Windows Powershell instead of the DOS copy command to update the file modification time; the batch file would look like this:

chdir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache

powershell $v = get-date; Set-ItemProperty -Path config.xml -Name LastWriteTime -Value $v

These two batch files are IDENTICAL in function. However, the 2nd requires powershell; the first works on any Windows machine.

Then each time sidebar gadgets stop connecting (currency and weather do this sometimes) do the following:

1. Close ALL gadgets (or kill sidebar.exe using 'end process tree' from the task manager).
2. Run the batch file you created above.
3. Restart sidebar (run 'sidebar' from Start->Run) or start individual gadgets (by right-clicking on the desktop, select 'Gadgets', and dragging the gadgets you want onto the desktop).

Voila!

it wasn't working because it more than likely became corrupt and the files I took from the laptop were from a machine that is always connected to the internet so I fail to see you point....my laptop weather gadget was working fine and I turn the laptop on every night when I go to bed so its on the internet.  As i said I am not sure where you are going with that

. 

Quote "Did you know if you never connect a computer to the internet you'll never get a virus?"Unquote

wrong again

Yes you can if you plug in an infected usb flash drive into the computer....not sure where you are going with that either....seems to be just rambling....as I said it cant be disabled nor unsupported as mine is now working again.

Quote" Their solution was just to disable the program so it couldnt connect, thus stopping the ability to access it. It was still installed and capable of functioning, they just turned the light off :) " Unquote

Mine is connected...that's some light they turned off lol

OH and sure it can be unsupported, XP is not supported but its still working just fine as it was before, it just doesnt get any more security patches or updates because they dont SUPPORT it anymore. Supported means they fix it when it breaks, not supported means they do not fix it. It doesnt mean it stops working.

Consider the word "supported" as a "warranty" on a car. As long as you have the warranty they will fix it for you. When the warranty expires they dont fix it FOR you anymore but the car doesnt stop running.

Some newer cars have a feature that disables your battery if it goes dead and you replace it to make you go to them to fix it. You dont have to, you can do it yourself in 5 minutes. Point being the dealer disables your whole car until they reset it, just like Microsoft can disable a feature until it gets reset. You can turn off virtually ANY program or feature in windows and if you dont know that it can be done, you wont understand that it can be disabled without removing it. There is an instruction for everything that runs on your computer and you can tell it to run, not run, run on this day but not that day, only run if this rule is met, dont run if this rule isnt met, times dates users, system levels all sorts of criteria. So before trying to tell me something cannot be disabled I suggest you take some IT courses and learn how **** works. Right click on the my computer choose "manage" then go to services and just pick something and double click on it and check out the window that comes up, and do a little learning. Thats just one way to manipulate a program and those settings can be changed by an update without your knowledge.

So while YOUR rambling about something you obviously know nothing about  and that something cant be disabled, you should take that time and learn more about how things work. And I'll show you how almost anything can be disabled and show you more than 1 way to do it, turn it off, remove a file, hide a file, dont allow this program. It only takes 1 setting of hundreds to stop something from operating correctly.